Getting to a proper Definition of Ready (DoR)

During the refinement sessions we are preparing the place holder stories in the sprint backlog to get to this definition. Only if they are ready, we can bring them in to a new sprint.

User story has:

A description (As a X, I want Y, So that I Z).

Acceptance criteria (important for definition of done).

Story points.

How to demo.

So that’s equal for all the types of user stories, may it be a support task with uncertainties in terms of the actual work, or for JIT execution or any other possible work-related task.

Definition of Done (DoD) for a user story (feature)

This definition marks the point where a story is really Done. Now this seems like a cliché but there are many discussions on wether something is really done or not. In order to set the criteria for the DoD we use the acceptance criteria in the user story. This functions like a check-list; if all are checked the story is done.

And when all the user stories are conform the DoD we define the DoD for the sprint.